Wednesday, November 14, 2012

The Voice has a few changes on its mechanics this year. During the Live Top 12 Perfomances, which was held November 12th, the contestants sang off for the public votes, which would decide who should continue on the next round. Unlike last year, which limited elimination to two particular teams, the bottom two who received the least votes gets eliminated instantly, regardless of what team they are in.

This means that the distribution of contestants for each coach will be a little uneven. There is also a possibility that the top 4 who will proceed to the grand finals will come from a single coach (unlike the previous season's every coach having one front liner each). This is quite exciting actually, and very unfortunate for the coach who's members are all eliminated even before the grand finals night.

The first two to go were Michaela Paige from Team Blake and a surprising elimination of Adriana Louise from Team Xtina. Check out their performances below, that helped the public decide on their eventual departure.

Michaela Paige: Blow Me (One Last Kiss) by P!nk

Team Blake may have won the spotlight last year through Paul Jermaine, but it's no guarantee that he'll be able to pull the same feat this season. I personally believe that Team Blake won't make it to the finals. No offense to their talents, but the acts from this team seem a little too stereotypical. People would definitely say, "I've seen this before" or "who needs another artist like <insert name of contemporary artist here>". If we are to predict the probable winner based on the previous seasons, the artist should (1) be a public charmer, (2) have a unique and wide-ranged voice, (3) be a balladeer or power-belter (I left out black American since I was hoping for this season to have a new direction, NOFI). Most of these traits usually attribute to this year's Team Xtina.

Adriana Louise: Good Girl by Carrie Underwood

Despite having said the qualities of the previous winners above, Team Xtina was not able to escape a very surprising elimination. Adraina Louise have the qualities to become the next pop star, that it makes me wonder why America hadn't voted for her. I have a little feeling that this was all because of the song choice. The song was not selling. If only she'd chosen a much darker song by Miss Carrie Underwood, like Blown Away (a song loved so dearly by a friend), then maybe the coaches and the public voters would have been blown away by her performance. The episode was a complete waste of her talent, limiting the chops that she could have executed. This is a sad news for Team Xtina, but it's time to move on.

Special Performances of the Night

Jason Aldean performed his country song The Only Way I Know with a reserved reaction from the audience. Beacuse I don't like country-rock music, the song did not really appeal to me despite it's being in the top 30 of Billboard's Us Country Songs and Airplay list. Dez Duron from Team Xtina and Brian Keith from Team Adam were jamming together with the country star, but it didn't add up much to the performance, as far as I am concerned.

Finally, Christina Aguilera and Cee Lo Green (check out their nasty and matching attires) gave us a live taste of Make the World Move, a song that was included in Xtina's recently released Lotus album. This song definitely took away the negative aura that the elimination brought about. It sounded so good on live television especially when Xtina belted out on the last quarter of the song. The performance, together with the balloons, simply made the audience go gaga at the end.

Accompanied by his Team, Cee Loo Green berated the song Stayin' Alive with his appealing mumbly voice. Although the acts were a little uneven, having different voice qualities and tones, they were able to pull it through. it was a funny performance actually, that added to the energy of the show.

Coach Blake Shelton performed with his Team on the results night. They rendered their own interpretation of Life is a Highway, originally by Tom Cochrane. This is much like a swan song (unknowingly) for one of his contestants, who is about to say goodbye to the show.

The Voice Top 10 with Christina Milian

The Top 12 Live Performances and Results Night went well if you ask me, especially when soft-spoken Melanie Marinez and all-around artist Sylvia Yacoub make it to the next round. I am definitely looking forward for them on The Live Top 10 Performances on November 19, to be followed by the elimination night on the 20th. The Voice airs on NBC at 8:00 PM Eastern Time.